The events of July 22 have confronted all of us with the reality of death. The events of July 22 have reminded us of how fragile human life really is. Death came suddenly, when least expected, to those victims in Oslo and at Utøya. – as it has for so many others before them.

There is a way in which we have all experienced once again the painful loss of our loved ones, whether we knew the victims personally or not. We have felt the pain of the loss of loved ones we have known in life. What is more, we have been confronted with the inescapable and perhaps fearful reality that one day, perhaps when we least expect it, death will come to us as well.

What do we make of all of this? How do we cope with it?

For me personally, the words of Scripture offer much hope and consolation. There is a beautiful text in the book of Wisdom that says so much to me, especially at this time: “The souls of the just are in the hands of God and no torment will touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died . . .and their going from us to be their destruction. But they are at peace . . . their hope is full of immortality” (Wis 3,1-4).

Their hope has been realized through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Paul says that Jesus is the “first-fruit” of the resurrection. His use of the words “first-fruit” tells us that there will be yet more fruits of the resurrection after him – our loved ones and we ourselves among them.

In this time of mourning and grief, let us look to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as the hope, the destiny, the reality for those who have died in Oslo and at Utøya. For them and for all who have gone before them, in and through the Risen Jesus, life is changed in death, not taken away.